Child's Play
by GazMembrane
Summary: Part 2 ch 2 is up! It's years before the war, even before the Elrics are born. Join Roy and his friends as they all experience life as children of the military. Everyone is excelling, and changes are coming, but are they for the best?
1. Part 1 ch 1

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, never have, probably never will, never stop wishing...

The general basis of this fic is that no one really knows how Roy's military faction has really known each other, so I thought: Maybe they knew each other when they were kids. So then...I started writing...this is one of those 'middle of the night when you can't sleep' ideas, so I hope you enjoy.

Also, just to help people out a bit, mostly because I didn't know all of the men's first names until I decided to write this fic, here is a legend:

Roy Mustang

Elizabeth "Riza" Hawkeye

Alex Louis Armstrong

John Havok

Maes Hughes

Hymans Breda

Cain Fury

Child's Play

-Chapter 1-

Put yourself back about 25 years, life was simple, and the idea of using Alchemy as a military weapon was still a few years from fully coming to light. In the city of central, life was good and peaceful, there was no real war in sight, and whatever the conflict in Ishbal was, it hadn't yet reached the common masses. People had open businesses that always seemed to be busy, and the general populous could walk the streets without fearing any sort of attack on their lives. Out of school early and near the opening of an alley were 4 boys.

"What is it?" said a light haired one, his bangs fell in his eyes, but he still continued to kneel down in front of the other children.

"I don't know." another one said, he was a little chubby with darker hair. He went on his hands and knees trying to peer deeper into the alley.

"I think we should leave..." a small boy with dark hair and glasses said, he looked a little younger than the others and took a half step away from the alley.

"No." a black haired boy said looking forward, "Not until Alex and Maes get here." the other three turned to look at him and nodded. The four boys had stumbled until the carcass of an animal that was unlike anything they had seen, it had the head and feet of a cat, but the rest of the body was that of a lizard. Whatever it was, it seemed to have simply fallen over and died.

"I wonder if it's still warm." the chubby boy said reaching a hand forward.

"Hymans no!" the smallest boy said moving to pull him back, they struggled a little, but eventually both lost their balance and fell to the side.

"Cain! What's your problem!" Hymans shouted, pushing the small boy away,

"What if it had something weird disease, you could have gotten really sick!" young Cain said readjusting his glasses. The other two boys watched them bicker for a short while, then looked at the dead creature.

"What is that thing." the light haired boy asked turning to look at the pale boy who was only looking forward towards the animal, "Hey...Roy!" hearing his name caused the boy to snap out of his daze and turn his attention to the still knowing boy that was now looking at him.

"What?" Roy asked

"What do you think it is?" the boy asked again, standing up to move next to Roy.

"I'm not sure...it looks almost like a monster out of my books." Roy explained, "what do you think John?"

"I have no idea...wonder where it came from though..." John said kneeling back down.

"I believe the proper term is 'chimera', if it's what you described to me that is," a voice came from behind the group. Even Cain and Hymans stopped fighting to look at the two older boys that had made it to the alley. One was tall and thin with slightly spiked hair and a small pair of glasses. The other boy was even taller with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pile of books in each hand. Both of them were wearing black uniforms with an insignia on the shoulder of a mer-lion; the symbol of the military academy.

"Chimera?" the four boys asked at once.

"Yes." the blonde said.

"What's what?" Hymans asked sitting up and looking towards the other boys.

"Don't look at me," the black haired boy said holding up his arms, "they're his books."

"Not these." the blonde said holding out a stack of 6 text books in one hand towards the boy next to him.

"...heh...thanks Alex, you're just so much stronger than me..." the boy said taking the books, he seem to strain under the sudden addition of weight.

"This is true...but," the blond said managing to hold his own stack of books with one hand and flip through the pages of the top book with the other. The other boys except Roy seemed disturbed by watching and they turned and looked to one another.

"What did you find Alex?" Roy asked, the other boy just watched over the top of his text books as Alex flipped through the book.

"A book of Alchemy in the school's library, I asked my father about it and he said the information was accurate." Alex explained.

"I found the book." the other boy said.

"You were also looking for something that would make a good head rest during chemistry." Alex said giving the boy a side-long glance.

"but the important thing is that _I_ found it." he winked to the group of 4 younger boys, who only gave him very disappointed looks.

"Here it is," Alex said, and quickly all of the boys crowded around his open book, "Chimera, a creature made from two or more other creatures by the process of matter transmutation, also known as Alchemy" Alex read.

"So...that thing was made?" Cain asked and with that, all the books looked to each other, then to the dead creature. The way it had fallen made it look as if it was in mid-step when the life sudden left its body. They all stood there and looked at it for a while, and they're attention seemed fully fixed on it until the older boy that had been given his books' knees finally gave out and he fell to the ground.

"Maes!"

Roy walked down the street carrying three of Maes' books. He didn't mind helping him carry his things, Roy just wished that Maes wouldn't try so hard to be a slacker.

"Hey, so what do you think about the chimera?" Maes asked looking over at Roy.

"Not sure..." Roy said looking over the stop of his friend's books towards the ground. Maes gave him an odd look through the corner of his glasses, then sighed.

"You know, you need to find a cut girl." Maes said looking up towards the sky. Roy felt the corner of his eyebrow twitch and he just ignored Maes' comment and continued to walk. He didn't look forward until the paved road became rocky and the two boys were making it to the outskirts of the Central City. Both boys lived about a mile outside the city, and because both their fathers were involved with the military the two had become good friends.

They walked in silence as they came to Maes' house. Roy walked up to the door with him and they were greeted by Maes' mother. She also had black hair, but her's was long and was mostly tied back, she had blue eyes, and always gave Roy a smile that could calm even the wildest of storms.

"Welcome home Maes." she said as her son took the books from Roy, then walked past her, dropping them on a chair. "Hello Roy." she said giving him that smile again.

"G-good afternoon M-mrs. Hughes." Roy said, he found himself stuttering over his words and felt his cheeks getting warm from embarrassment. He didn't notice Maes standing behind his mother, give Roy an odd look at first, then turn and start to snicker.

"Tell your mother and father we say 'hello'," she said.

"All right!" Roy said and with that he turned and quickly headed home.

His rushed walk home took Roy about 10 minutes, and he promptly slowed his pace when he saw his father talking to a man in uniform. From what he could see, the conversation was casual and as Roy moved closer he noticed a large van across the street from his house. Before he could make it through his front door, he took a glance over his shoulder and froze in place.

"Roy! Come over here!" his father called waving to his son. Quietly Roy complied and walked over. He looked up at the man in uniform and saw that he had brown hair and eyes. From his much lower angle he couldn't tell the man's rank in the military.

"Why hello there." the man said holding out his hand to the young boy.

"Roy, you remember me talking about Captain Hawkeye." Roy's father said looking down at him. With the recognition in his head, Roy shook the man's hand.

"He has a good grip for someone his age, I'm sure he'll make a strong leader." the Captain said looking at Roy's father.

"I'm honored Sir, and to think he's only a couple years older than your's." Roy's father said. Roy suddenly found himself in the middle of a conversation that he really didn't have a part of and was quickly becoming bored.

After a bit the Captain saluted and smiled, "I'm going to help get everyone settled in. I'll see you tomorrow Julius." and with that the man turned and left. Roy watched him go across the street and meet up with a blonde woman. As the van drove away and kicked up a lot of dust from the road, it was difficult to see them go into the house, but as it started to clear, he saw a brown dog come from around the back of the house and stop at a small figure.

He was about to go greet the child, but felt his whole body freeze once the dust had fully settled and the figure turned around to face hi. The dog stared by its owner as the child's eyes landed on Roy's face. He couldn't believe it, out of all the possibilities, not only had the Captain of the Military moved across the street, but the man had a daughter! Not a son! A daughter! She was blonde with her hair pulled back in a loose pony tail. She was wearing a red dress with while sleeves and had deep brown eyes that seemed to force themselves into he very depths of his eternal soul.

When he didn't move for almost a minute, the girl gave him an odd look, then turned her head down to the dog. She gestured her head in Roy's general direction and the dog began to run towards him. It was about three feet from him when Roy finally realized the dog was coming for him, and was unable to run as the dog jumped up and tackled him.

"Ow!" he called out, then coughed from the dust that had gone into his lungs. When he was able to open his eyes, they stopped on a pair of red shoes, moving his gaze up he saw they belonged to the captain's daughter. He tried to force himself up when she knelt down, placing her hands on her knees.

"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice was quiet and somewhat small, and judging by what his father had said, Roy figured her age to be about 8 or 9 years old.

"No!" he shouted at her, finally being able to set himself to his knees and into a sitting position. She looked a little taken back by his sudden outburst, and for many reasons that greatly confused Roy.

"I'm sorry...I thought for sure you would have run." she said, "but I guess you were really out of it." she said lowing her eyes, "It was the only thing I could think of to get you to step staring at me like that."

"Oh..." Roy rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry about that. It's just...I always heard about Captain Hawkeye's kid, and I guess I was surprised to see that it was a girl." Roy explained, and the girl listened for a bit then smiled. For some reason Roy was surprised by that smile, it made the girl seem so sweet and innocent, but after being warned, he was careful not to take too much notice.

"I'm sorry if you were disappointed." she said, "My name is Elizabeth, but everyone always calls me Riza." she said holding out her hand to him.

"Roy," he said taking her hand in his, "Roy Mustang.


	2. Part 1 ch 2

Notes: All right, there has been some requests for ages...and I'm sorry...honestly I'm only estimating . Oh, and I have a good idea how things'll end up, so don't worry, I'm sure the time line will be somewhat right in the end.

Child's Play

-Chapter 2-

Roy sat at his desk waiting for class to start. Resting his head on his left hand, he had to continually fight the urge to fall to sleep. His first class was English; he found it more or less useless seeing that he knew how to speak and he didn't really care which words he was using were pronouns and which were adjectives. After he yawned Roy lifted up his head and looked around the room, his eyes landed on John and Hymans who were tossing a wad of paper over a few desks to one another. He laughed to himself as John missed, the paper bounced off his hands, flew to the side and hit Cain the back of the head. The usually quiet boy only turned around and glared at John and Hymans, who only sat there pretending to be innocent.

"Idiots..." Roy whispered to himself as their teacher slid the door open and entered the room. Everyone was quick to settle down, as the man walked over to his desk and looked through some papers before moving to the front-center of the room and stood at attention.

"Roll call!" he commanded, and automatically every child stood up at attention and responded with a call of 'Sir, yes, sir!' After the man sat down, the individual students called out their names; last name, then first, then sat down. He eventually went through all of Roy's group starting with Hymans Breda, Cain Fury, John Havok, and then finally Roy Mustang himself, each of them calling back with a 'here' or 'present'.

After about 10 minutes, another man walked in and saluted their teacher. He was wearing a blue officer's uniform and automatically all the students sat up straight in their seats and gave each other uneasy looks. Their teacher stood up and saluted back and the officer went and started to whisper something in the man's ear.

"Really?" they heard their teacher say in response to the officer, "All right." and with that they both left the room, but didn't close the door. The students looked at each other again and started to mumble to each other.

"Hey Roy." he heard John whisper from his right, Roy then turned to him, but said nothing, "Do you think he's finally getting discharged for being a bad teacher?" he asked.

"...I highly doubt you can get fired for giving a test a week..." Roy said giving John an odd look.

"Havok! Mustang! None of that!" their teacher said sticking his head back into the room, both boys were always amazed at how good that man's hearing was. Roy then sighed and put his head back against his left hand, from the corner of his eye he watched John rest his head on his desk.

It took a few more minutes, but their teacher did come back into the room. Roy's eyes widened and he seemed to pale more so when he glanced behind their teacher. He sat up and sucked in his breath as his mind sent him the memories of the day before and the girl that had just moved in across the street.

"Students, I have an announcement, and as you all can very well see, we have a new addition to our class." their teacher explained, then turned to the child next to him, "Go ahead."

"Thank you sir," she said, then turned to face the class, "My name is Elizabeth Hawkeye, it is an honor to be joining you class." she said giving a slight bow. Her uniform was slightly different from the boys; it still had a light gray shirt with the military insignia, but it had a black skirt instead of pants that went just below her knees. Her hair was still pulled back in a loose pony tail and her serious brown eyes scanned the room as the murmuring began to grow louder.

"welcome Hawkeye, there's an open seat towards the back." the teacher explained pointing to the back of the room. It took both John and Roy a second, but they realized that the empty seat was actually between the two of them. When she sat down, John gave her a slight wave, but all she did was look to the front of the room and listen as the lesson began. After a bit Roy found himself becoming tired, but he knew that if he fell asleep in front of her, word was going to get back to his father very quickly.

Lunch was one of the few times during the day when all of the grades intermingled, and almost as soon as John and Roy hade made it into the cafeteria there was an arm around Roy's shoulder.

"So, I heard about your new neighbors." Maes said, "heard she's cute too."

"Stop it Maes." Roy said shoving the boy's arm away.

"She?" John said, "You didn't tell me about that!"

"I didn't tell anyone anything." Roy explained eyeing Maes suspiciously.

"What?" was all he could say in response to his friend's look, along with a sneaky smile back.

As they walked through the lunch line and made their way towards their normal table, they stopped seeing Hymans and Cain on a quick intercept course. "Guys!" they shouted and they almost fell over each other once they came to a stop.

"What?" John asked looking at them.

"It's about the new girl!" Cain said.

"New girl?" Maes asked looking at them with a sudden peak in interest.

"We saw some officers, we heard them talking." Hymans explained.

"Her father's one of the higher captains of the military!" Cain said before Hymans had a chance to. Roy then stepped out of the way, giving the other a chance to react to the news he already knew about.

"Really!" John said, "What is she was sent to spy on us!"

"That's what we think, there's no way she could be old enough to be in our class." Cain explained, Hymans nodded while standing next to him.

"Look...I highly dou--" Roy started, but was cut off when Maes pushed him to the side a little.

"Maybe the captain's testing us, seeing if we'll give into temptation." Maes said looking to the others.

"You've got to be joking..." Roy said, then moved away from the group, he could only guess what was said when he heard Maes ask them all a question.

"Yes" was the resounding answer from the others.

"See! Test of temptation!" then came the response from Maes. Trying to ignore them, Roy moved over to their table and sat down. He didn't notice the sudden silence from his friends, nor did he realize there was someone standing next to him.

"They're talking about me aren't they." she a quiet voice to Roy's right. When he turned he saw Elizabeth standing there with a tray of food in her hands.

"They're just paranoid." Roy said sitting up straight, "Of, and I don't recommend eating that." he said pointing to a piece of white meat, "It's worse than the Chicken A'la King MREs"

"Oh...thanks." she said, "Sorry to bother you." she gave a slight nod then turned to leave.

Roy gave his friends a side-long glance, and got an almost wicked grin on his face seeing that they looked to be frozen in place. "Hey Riza." he said.

"Hm?" she looked over her shoulder back to him,.

"Sit." Roy said motioning to a seat across from him. She gave a slight smile, as if she was simply happy to be accepted somewhere, and went to sit down.

"Thanks." she said, then looked up past him, "Are your friends ok?" she asked pointing to the others.

"...'ok' is an understatement..." Roy said, then turned to the others, "Look!" he put his fork into something on his own tray of food, "You can almost identify the Mystery Meat this time!" that being said, the four boys snapped out of their shock, hurried over to the table and looked at Roy's food.

Once they had settled down a bit, the other boys sat around the table and everyone began to eat. Riza still seemed a little nervous, as would anyone that had just transferred in to a new should would be.

"All right." John finally said breaking the quickly becoming awkward silence. "My name is John Havok, and on behalf of everyone here. I'd like to welcome, the lovely, Elizabeth Hawkeye to our circle." he said standing up and gesturing to the others, then to the girl. Cain and Maes smiled and clapped slightly and Hymans who was sitting next to her lightly patted her back.

"Now for the round of introductions." Maes said waving a little, "Since you already know Roy here, we can ignore him for the time being." that line drew a look from Roy, who wasn't given a chance to respond, "My name is Maes Hughes, you won't really see me around much since I'm in a higher grade than all these kids here." he explained, he seemed to take joy in pointing out the age difference.

"I'm Cain Fury, if I'm not wondering around with these guys, I'm probably reading." he said then shifted his eyes to Maes, "which is something he doesn't do very often either."

"I read, I just don't study, but there's all right for those of us who don't need to study." Maes said giving a slight smirk.

"Right...anyways, I'm John Havok, and as you saw, I'm in your English class." he said waving slightly again. Riza nodded seeming to remember his gesture from earlier.

"I'm Hymans Breda, I'm in English too." he said resting his elbow on the table next to her.

"It's nice to meet you all." Riza said smiling to them. She blinked a couple of times though as she felt someone take her left hand and pull to outwards.

"My name is Alex Louis Armstrong, and it's always a pleasure to make an acquaintance with a strong person such as yourself. If you ever need help with any project, or homework just ask me." he said, there were even a couple sparkles that seemed to come out of no where and float around his head.

"...uh...hi." Riza said giving him a very confused, and slightly disturbed look.

"Sit down Alex." Hymans said gesturing to the empty seat next to him.

"I was just going to formally introduce myself to you all." Riza said turning back to them, "My name is Elizabeth Hawkeye, but I guess you guys can call me 'Riza'. My parents and I just moved here from Lior." she explained.

"Hey I've been there once, nice place." Maes said, he then looked over at Roy from the corner of his eye, then elbowed him, "Don't you agree?"

"What? Oh! Yes! Nice place yes!" Roy said trying to quickly catch himself up to the conversation topic. There was a resounding laughter as a result. After the bell rang, they all went their separate ways to other classes.

When school got out that day, both Maes and Roy waited at the gate for Riza, they figured it would be convenient for her if they would just wait since they all lived relatively close. When they started out, Roy tried to go through his normal routine of watching the ground, but couldn't help but find himself interested in whatever conversation Riza and Maes would bring up.

"I noticed there weren't too many girls in the school..." Riza said as she walked between both boys.

"That's because of the higher classes. They move away from a lot of the academics and more towards military training." Maes explained, "I'm almost up to those levels myself, and trust me, a good part of me isn't looking forward to it."

"Oh." Riza said

"I think it'll do you some good Maes, it'll at least give you some discipline." Roy said giving him a look.

"I'm plenty disciplined. You just never see it." Maes said, "Believe me, I'm very good at what I do."

"Oh? And what would that be exactly?" Roy asked, but stopped as Maes began to pull away from him and Riza.

"I'm very good at knowing when to back off." the taller boy then winked and went towards his house. Roy only stood and watched as his mother let him in and waved to both him and Riza. The girl waved back a little, and Roy felt his face getting slightly warm as he waved back to the woman. They started walking again after she turned and shut the door.

"Who was that Maes?" his mother asked as she closed the door watching her son.

"Honestly? I think she might be one of the best things that'll ever happen to him." he said and with that he turned and walked up some stairs to his room.


	3. Part 1 ch 3

Child's Play

-Chapter 3-

A couple of days later they were gathered at the alley again, once again stopped at the entrance. Cain had called everyone that night and explained the strange noises he'd heard outside his window. When they had all made it to he alley, the children found the bodies of two, much larger creatures; these ones with the bodies of lions, twisted horns like a ram, and the tail of a bird. Like the last one, these had seemed to have fallen over and died at the exact same time.

"What are they?" Riza asked kneeling next to Hymans in front of the rest of the group.

"Chimeras." John said from her other side.

"Where are they coming from?" Hymans asked not looking away from the corpses.

"I heard the sounds just after midnight," Cain explained, "I was really scared, but I snuck out of the house to get a look. When I shined my light over here, I saw the shadows and ran." he said. The children nodded, then Riza stood up and looked at the bodies from a higher angle.

"We should find out where they're coming from." Maes said, Alex stood next to him and nodded.

"What if we asked one of our parents?" Riza asked turning to look at the other over her shoulder.

"That, won't be necessary Miss Hawkeye." a deep voice from behind said, and after that all the children turned around to face the then Colonel Bras Grande.

"Hello sir." all of them said, looking up at the man.

"Good morning," he said moving forward, "Now unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you _children_ to leave." he said, emphasizing the word 'children' as he started to move past them, "Now if you'll all excuse us, this is a military crime scene." Bras Grande said standing behind them and ushering them away from the alley. Roy glanced at the officers on the scene that were standing next to a van and saw that his father was among them. He saw the nod of acknowledgement and knew that he would be hearing something once he got home that evening.

The children moved to the academy and placed themselves in a small circle, some on a railing, others on the stairs, Roy though chose to stand.

"This stinks!" Hymans shouted, kicking at the air from his seat on a metal railing. "Every time we find something interesting the military takes it away from us." he said.

"He's right." John said, "We maybe young, but we're all in the military school for a reason." he explained.

"They're only trying to protect us..." Cain said.

"Oh quiet!" Hymans called tossing a small stone at Cain who flinched as it hit his shoulder.

"Guys let's just talk to our parents, maybe they'll tell us something." Riza said looking around to the others.

"At the very least let me talk to my father." Roy said speaking up.

"Do you really think the Lieutenant Colonel will tell you anything?" Maes said sitting up a little.

"I think he might, but either way I'll let you guys know." he explained

"What do we do if he doesn't tell you anything, or if none of our parents tell us anything for that matter?" John asked hopping off the railing.

"Well..." Maes said looking at him from the corner of his eye, "We'll burn that bridge once we cross it.."

"All right, so, we all meet here after class tomorrow." Roy said, and everyone nodded, then stood up to leave. Roy watched everyone leave and noticed that Maes was still sitting on his step. He got a confused look on his face when he saw Maes turn to attention in the direction the others had left in. When Roy turned to look he saw Riza standing there, her hair was pulled back in a clip and she was wearing a light purple hooded sweat shirt along with a pair of dark pants. She tilted her head a little and gave a slight smile.

"There's that look again." she said then took a couple steps closer, "you know, you're quite the natural leader." she said as she walked.

"I am?" Roy asked, now almost completely ignoring Maes.

"Don't you see how everyone follows you? It's in your blood. I bet you'd even make fuehrer one day." She said stopping in front of him, "Just don't back down." and with that, Riza turned and walked down the street. Roy stood there and only watched her leave, his mind going over what she had told him.

" 'that look'?" he heard off to his side, and then turned to Maes, suddenly remembering that his friend had been sitting there the whole time.

"Nothing," Roy said, "Let's go." and with that he turned and left, Maes quickly got up and followed after him.

They walked in silence, passing by the crime scene again. Looking past the yellow tape that had been put up they could both see that the bodies had been moved. It was easy to assume that they had been placed in the second van that had pulled up.

"Hope I don't get that job when I get in..." Maes muttered, "Grotesque Body Remover." he said then chuckled to himself.

"Do you really think she's right?" Roy said obviously not paying attention.

"I guess, the guys do listen to you a lot." Maes said stretching his arms behind his head. They then continued walking quietly until they got home.

Roy watched his father walk in the door that night and waited as the man hung up his blue jacket. The man moved a hand through his thick black hair, them moved to sit across from Roy at the kitchen table.

"I saw you and your friends today." the man said looking at his son.

"Yeah...Cain wanted to show us what he had seen that night before," Roy explained, he was careful about not letting his father know they had been there the last time a body was found as well.

"You want to know what's going on don't you?" his father said, Roy had always admired how his father always got right to the point, no matter what the subject might be.

"Yes sir." Roy said nodding.

"This is not to get out, understand?" his father whispered, and again Roy nodded, "The military is testing to see if it's possible to use Chimeras, and alchemy in general, to create a separate branch of defense." his father explained.

"Really? But why are the chimeras getting out?" Roy asked, his father was about to answer, but hesitated, "Dad." Roy said insistently.

"It's part of an early experiment...to see if they can be controlled, but they keep dying just after they exit the back door." his father said sighing afterwards, "And what's worse that we're discovering is that when more than one is let out at a time, they become very aggressive and territorial."

"What would explain the positions of the bodies at the time of death." Roy said, this time his father nodded, "But why release them in the first place? What if they go after a civilian?" Roy asked.

"We send in the experimental division to take care of the creatures." his father said.

"Alchemists?" Roy asked, and again his father nodded. They sat there quietly until a knock came to the door and his father went to answer it. Roy stayed at the table and only watched as Captain Hawkeye could be seen standing in the doorway.

"Julius, I have a question." the captain said, and after hearing that Roy stood up and slowly made his way to the door.

"Yes sir?" Roy's father asked.

"Have you, or your son seen Elizabeth? She said she was meeting some friends in town, but when she didn't come home after a couple hours, I began to worry and called around, but no one has seen her." her father said, the nervousness was very obvious in the man's voice.

"No sir, I'm sorry...is there anything I can do to help?" Julius asked, by this time Roy was standing right behind him.

"I don't know what you can do...she might be on her way home right now." the captain said, then mumbled something under his breath.

"it's not a problem, I was just working with Roy on his alchemical studies. Come on, let's go see if we can find her." Julius said grabbing his coat.

"Dad!" Roy said drawing both men's attention, "Let me go get Maes, we'll run into the city to cover more ground." he said, his father looked to Captain Hawkeye for a moment, then back to his son.

"Be careful, it's almost midnight." his father said, after that Roy nodded and grabbed a sweater, quickly heading out the door.

Riza quietly moved along the wall of the large gray building. She was well aware of how much trouble she would be in once she got home, but she had to find out something about what was going on. Moving along the side of the building behind the alley, she kept going until she saw a door with two officers in black standing on either side of it. 'Military guards?' she though, then moved back to the side of the building. 'Chimeras at night, dead in the morning. With two military guards watching the entrance to what would seem to be an empty build...' she though, then took another look at the guards, "Make that _armed_ guards." she whispered to herself.

She walked back to the alley and looked towards the path that lead into the city street. "What's going on here..." she whispered, then leaned against the back wall. She stood there in though until she heard several voices call out "Riza!" somewhere near by. She was going to move to show herself, but when she lifted her head, she began to feel herself sinking into the wall and heard the sound of stone against stone. She tried to pull herself forward, but gravity kept pulling her back. Everything seemed to blacken around her as her back hit what seemed to be a sloped ramp and she started to slide. She let out a high pitched scream as she started to pick up speed and watched the outside world disappear as the stone door went back into place.


	4. Part 1 ch 4

Child's Play

-Part 1, Chapter 4-

Roy pounded on Maes' door repeatedly until it was cracked open and the older boy stood in the doorway yawning a little. He looked somewhat irritated and as if he was about to snap at Roy for waking him up, but he wasn't given the chance to as Roy reached in, grabbed Maes' jacket and threw it at him. After being hit in the face by his coat, Maes moved it away from his face and adjusted his glasses. Before he could say anything Roy turned and ran towards the city.

"Roy?" Maes mumbled, then took a look over at the clock and saw that it was 11:45. Something seemed to hit him then and he quickly put on his coat, "Mom! Dad! I'm going out!" he shouted over his shoulder, then hurried after Roy.

It took him a bit, but Maes was eventually able to catch up to Roy, sometimes he was amazed at how fast that boy could run.

"Roy, what's going on!" he shouted still from behind.

"The chimeras are let out at midnight!" Roy shouted back, never once looking over his shoulder.

"What?! Why then are we running INTO the city?!" Maes yelled once he fully caught up to Roy.

"Riza didn't come home..." Roy said looking at Maes, then they both ran straight into the city. They ran around the city center, desperately looking for any sign that Riza was somewhere around. Eventually both of them no longer cared whether there were citizens asleep and started to yell out for her.

"Riza!" Maes shouted running down a side street.

"Riza!" Roy yelled hurrying down a main street. Both of them froze and sucked in their breath as they heard a scream that was quickly silenced by an unknown source. They both looked at each other, then ran towards the alley the chimeras had died in. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl and it felt like an eternity before they made it there, only to find nothing.

"Elizabeth?" Maes asked out loud taking a look around the alley.

"What happened to her?" Roy asked making his way around the perimeter of the alley, eventually making his way around the side of the buildings to see the two armed guards in front of the door. Looking over his shoulder back to Maes for a moment, Roy turned and started to approach the guards trying to be as calm as possible.

"Can we help you son?" the guard on the right asked seeing Roy talking closer.

"Have you two seen, or heard, anything strange this evening?" Roy asked coming to a stop a several feet away from the guards.

"No my boy, we haven't." the left guard said. Roy turned around, but stopped as he was faced with Maes standing behind him, looking at the guards with a curious look.

"Excuse me sirs," Maes said, "But why exactly do you need to guard an obviously abandoned building in the middle of the night? Even if it is in the vicinity of a military crime scene, shouldn't you be guarding, oh I don't know, the alley the incident took place in?" he asked, Roy looked over his shoulder and saw both men tense up.

"I'm sorry, that's classified military information." the left guard said, now refusing to look at the two boys.

"What If someone's life was in danger, and because you two didn't answer the questions, that person was horribly injured or even killed?" Roy asked turning back to face the guards. They looked like they were going to respond, but tensed up even more as they all head quickly approaching foot steps. Both Roy and Maes saw the men tense up even more and quickly turned around to see both Roy's father and Captain Hawkeye fast approaching.

"Open the door." the captain said once they had come to a stop directly in front of the guards. The two men hesitated then looked to one another before turning to unlock the door.

She didn't know how long she had been sliding when she hit the floor, but when she felt the cold tile against the back of her head and she tried to stop herself from moving, she then began to roll. Riza knew she had changed directions once she came to a stop and waited for the world to stop spinning before pushing herself up to her knees.

"Dang..." she said to herself as she slowly got into a sitting position. When she looked around she found herself in a dark room with barely enough light to see with, "Hello?" she said aloud, but only heard herself echoed back through the darkness. When she stood up she looked around and managed to find a darkened path and began to walk. 'I have to get out of here..' she though making her way though the dark. Above all else she wanted a flashlight, or a match, at least then she would know exactly what she was walking past as she continued down her ambiguous path.

She walked for a good while before finding a wall in front of her. Carefully Riza moved her fingers along it, trying to find evidence of a door, but found nothing.

"Figures..." she said, "They hid the back door pretty good too." after that she turned and started back down her dark path. A few minute had past when she was startled by the sound of a chain clinking and what might have been a gate rising up filled the room. She ducked down and hid when she heard footsteps running along the floor, and it was more than a little obvious to her that they weren't human at all, and suddenly she remembered the two dead chimeras in the alley.

"Hmm..." she heard off to the side and peeked her head up a little to see the form of a tall man standing in a door way with a woman standing somewhat behind him in a room on the other side of the area. The light from the inside of his room reflected off his glasses and seemed to make them glow. "This should be interesting." he said in a quiet voice, but still loud enough for Riza to hear. He then flicked a switch and a dull white light turned on in a far corner.

Her whole body froze when she looked back at the door where she had seen the man to find it closed, and the ramp that lead the chimeras out of the city was still as dark as it had been when she had first entered the room. "He locked them in with me..." she said quietly and looking around she was able to see two shadows dart across the floor, one even went through the light for a split second, but she could only make out the vague shape of a dog. Ducking back down, Riza wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to think of a plan that would get her to that door.

The captain pushed the two guards out of the way and went into the building, he was followed by Roy's father, Maes Hughes, and Roy in the back. Inside the building's main entrance they found that it was made up to be like a normal house, but the lack of decoration of any sort made it obvious to the men that it was simply a decoy. Roy watched his father drop back to the end of the group next to him, then move his left hand into a pocket. Looking up to his father's head, he saw the gesture to look down and watched as the left hand moved out of the pocket and held out a piece of white chalk. Seeing that Roy discretely took the calm and placed it into his own pocket, then looked back at his father and nodded. He knew what his father needed him to do if things got very bad.

They continued to walk until they heard a door close behind them, but when the four of them turned around to look, no one was there. It was then when Maes dropped back by Roy and both adults took up defensive positions at the front and back of the group.

"Excuse me captain...Lieutenant Colonel," a voice from the side calm, and all four of them jumped slightly. "Might I ask what the occasion is for this uninvited visit?" the man said, he had a very quiet voice, brown hair and glasses, wearing a white lab coat. he almost had a calming air about him and behind him stood a woman with long brown hair, also wearing a lab coat.

"Oh Tucker, you startled us." the Captain said moving his hand away from a gun on his belt.

"Terribly sorry sir." the man said, the woman behind him bowed slightly.

"It's quite all right, though I do have to ask that both of you come with us for a little bit." the Captain said motioning to the door.

"If you insist." Tucker said and follows the man's directions. Roy and Maes glanced to one another and silently fell to the back of the ground, and before everyone had made it into the main area the boys moved to the side and hid. Roy's father nodded slightly as he left the building and both boys knew that was the signal for them to go to work.

Quickly they went to it, checking the walls for hidden doors, or hallow walls. They were both sure to stay clear of the windows incase someone saw them and reported the 'suspicious' activity. Eventually they made their way into the back room and they suddenly felt the urge not to touch anything once their eyes landed on the expansive laboratory. There were vials, beakers, and tubes on just about every counter and table inside of it with countless amounts of notes and books scattered along with them. The two boys nodded and started looking over the tables, they found many notes on alchemy and the processes needed to create a chimera among them.

"This is defiantly the right place." Maes said after looking over a few papers. Roy only nodded, then went back to searching.

Eventually Roy calm upon a book with a red cover, but when he tried to move it out of the way, he almost threw himself off balance when it wouldn't budge. "What?" Roy mumbled then looked over his shoulder, "Maes!"

"You find something?" he asked running over to stand next to Roy, when he saw the book, he only got an odd look on his face until Roy opened the front cover to show that the pages had been cut out in their center in the shape of a square and in the center was a large red button that was attached through the book and onto the counter underneath.

"Push it, I'll get ready." Roy said moving a little to the side and kneeling down. Maes watched as Roy took out the chalk and drew a circle with a few lines in the middle. "Now!"

Riza felt the sudden urge to cry as she heard more chains moving, and shortly after that several more foot steps filled the room. 'Oh God...' she though hugging her legs tighter. She looked in the direction of the door again and bit her lower lip, 'Why do you want to kill me?' she though. She sucked in her breath and froze when she heard growling from somewhere in the room. She wanted to run, but knew that there would be no where for her to go in the end, 'Help...'

"Nothing happened..." Maes said turning to look down at Roy who was still kneeling. He then closed his eyes as if concentrating, Maes went to say something, but chose to stay quiet.

"Maes, get down!" Roy shouted and the other boy readily complied by diving under a table. Once Maes was under cover Roy placed his hands on the edge of the chalk circle, and once his finger tips touched the lines shined blue and the floor began to break apart and spike upward, eventually making a line directly into the wall. It took several more seconds, but the wall started to crack and crumble under the force. Roy gritted his teeth together, hoping, willing, simply wishing that the wall would just break open so that he could get inside. Neither Roy or Maes saw that the cracked had shot up and disconnected a light that was handing, and they also didn't see the now exposed wires start to spark; their eyes were locked on that wall and as soon as they could see a little bit of darkness on the other side, Roy moved away from his circle and both he and Maes ran over and began to pull away the cracked pieces of wall.

A beam of light suddenly appeared and shot across the room, and whatever the rumbled had been had startled the chimeras enough to make them all freeze in place and go into hiding, each looking towards the wall. Riza them moved a little to the side and slowly started to stand up. She had to shield her eyes as the hole became larger and the room began to get considerably brighter. She saw two figured working to widen the hole, but what she couldn't understand was why they hadn't simply used the door.

She waked the hole now quickly glowing larger, but she was also sure to keep an eye on the chimeras that had started to pace back and forth, as if waiting for whatever was going to try and get inside. As it continued to get larger, the chimeras moved to the sides and hide in the shadows, now laying in wait. When the hole got big enough for the figures to be almost fully seen, Riza could tell that there were in no way adults and she sucked in her breath as she saw the reflection of light in a pair of glasses.

"Stop!" she shouted just as the figured were about to step over the final, lowest piece of what was left of the wall. "They're going to attack..." she said quieter. One figure looked back to the other one, who nodded and went back into the other room.

A sharp, deep growl grabbed the girl's attention as all of the chimeras turned at once to look at her. She had ruined their hunt, and she knew what was going to come next. As they began to make their way towards her, Riza looked around to get a better idea about what was in the room and found that it was lined with empty, metal cages. She watched one chimera break off from the now pack of 4 and go around to cut off her escape down her path while the others continued forward. She also now could see exactly what they were made of; the size and body of a dog with the tails that looked like a rat's, but with the feet of a horse. She felt herself put her back flat against the wall, and found herself unable to move as the one from down the path began a running charge towards her.

"Riza!" a familiar voice seemed to almost scream out from the other room and she saw a blue glow out of the corner of her eye. She then watched as the chimera leapt at her, but slammed into a slab that rose up from the floor.

"Get over here!" another voice yelled and she looked over and proceeded to climb over the cages. Judging by that the chimeras were made of, and their size she decided to got over to the others by jumping from the tops of the cages because she was sure the creatures couldn't jump straight up very well.

As they watched Riza make her way over to them, Roy and Maes watched the chimeras turn their attention to them. Maes stood off to the side a little, poised to pull Riza in once she got close enough, Roy stood in the entry way, his chalk in hand, quickly making new arrays to use with his alchemy. His eyes widened as he watched Riza make a jump towards them and the chimeras followed at her heels.

Not really caring what exactly happened, he slammed his hands into the center of the array and blue sparks shot up along the entry way. Maes grabbed onto Riza and pulled her inside just as the energy met with the exposed wires above and a mass amount of flames erupted. Feeling the sudden burst of heat from above, Roy just willed it to go into the other room, willed it to envelope the chimeras and stop them, willed it to fill the other room then disappear leaving only charred bodies of creatures that were created by alchemy. He could hear yelping, and howls of pain, but wouldn't stop willing the flames until they were completely silenced, and once he did stop it, he looked forward into the room and found that even the metal cages had started to melt from the heat.

Roy looked down at the chalk in one hand and found that it had cracked and broke in a couple places, then just let himself fall back into a sitting position, just starring into the other room, finding himself very short of breath. To his side, Maes and Riza stood up and also looked into the room in awe; the chimeras were gone, and the entire room looked like a war zone. Riza looked over at him and placed a hand on his left shoulder, snapping Roy back to reality.

"Are you ok..?" he asked, still a little short of breath.

"Yeah. I'm all right." she said, moving to help him up to his feet. They then made their way out of the house, carefully moving past the guards as if nothing had happened, neither Roy or Riza saw the gesture Maes gave to the two guards as they all walked. The cool night felt good to all three of them as they walked home, when they made it to Maes' house, both Roy's father and Captain Hawkeye were talking to Maes' mother and father, and they all turned to watch the children walking up the road.

"Elizabeth..." the captain said taking a couple steps toward then falling to his knees.

"Dad..." Riza mumbled as a few tears came to her eyes and she dashed towards him, opening her arms as she got over to her father and wrapping them around him.

"I was so worried about you..." the captain said holding his daughter close to him in a tight embrace. Maes and Roy made their way over and went to their respective parents. Roy glanced up at his father and held on his hand to him. Julius looked down at his son and held out an open palm and watched as Roy placed the broken piece of chalk in it, then started towards their house.


	5. Part 2 ch 1

Child's Play

- Part 2, Chapter 1-

The Military Academy in Central schools children from the ages of 8 to 17. Once students hit their basic military training is used in place of a fitness class, and tactics, engineering, and fire arms are added as areas of emphasis. The school mostly consists of children of current military personnel, but in a few cases students were brought in because of disciplinary problems. Roy was now 14 and on his 6th year at the academy, he met most of his friends in his first year, but he had known Maes for several years prior to starting school. When he was 12 he met Elizabeth Hawkeye for the first time and she had quickly become a regular amongst the friends.

With his book in a bag slung over his shoulder Roy made his way down the crowded hallway, he didn't know exactly who would be in his first class, but he knew he was looking forward to it. A few years earlier the military had formed a new faction of officers; the State Alchemists and Roy was more than determined to join them. When he walked into the classroom he saw a man sitting at a desk with light hair that was pulled back away from his eyes that were seeing through a pair of glasses.

"Name." the man said without looking up from a book.

"Mustang, Roy." he said, about to move the books away from his shoulder, but looked around and saw that no one else was in the room.

"Outside, main courtyard, 5 minutes." the man said, still not moving. With that Roy turned and walked back out into the hallway and entered a breezeway that looked out over a large portion of the campus.

"5 minutes?" Roy said realized how large the campus actually was, and how far away it made the courtyard seem. He then sighed and ran towards a flight of stairs, moving to make sure that he didn't run into anyone or anything for that matter, actually skipping several steps once he started down them. When he turned the corner he found himself in an empty hallway and the sound of a bell echoed throughout the building. Hearing this, Roy turned and ran down the hallway and soon found himself in front of a wall, "What?" he asked out loud, letting his books fall to the floor. He then started to look around for an alternate route, or a door, or a path, but eventually only found a piece of paper with the military insignia on it. Unfolding it Roy sat down next to his books and read:

"_Your first test is to use Alchemy to make your own path._"

Looking back at the wall Roy pulled out the chalk he now always carried with him, picked up his books and walked up to the wall. He then drew his array on the wall and touched his hand inside of it. Dust then filled the hallway and Roy had to squint to try and keep it away from his eyes as a hole formed in the wall and as soon as he could, he once again began to run.

Eventually he made it down to the ground level and even outside, but stopped seeing his path was suddenly covered by grass and a large sign with big red letters that was sticking up in front of him said. "DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS!" he stood there for a moment and looked around, trying to find another way to the courtyard, but only saw a large fountain off to the side.

"I hate my life..." he mumbled then walked over to the fountain and once again drew out his array. This time once he placed his hands on the edge of it, the water seemed to dance a little, then shot up and moved like an arrow to the side. Roy watched it carefully and as he began to lose sight of the water's tip, it began to freeze resting just on top of the grass.

Once he figured the ice had reached the edge of the grass, he carefully stepped onto the ice and moved as quickly as he could to get to the courtyard. he didn't see the slight shift in the ice and suddenly felt his left leg slip out from underneath him. The challenge now was to simply stay on the ice and ride out his mistake, holding onto his books tightly in front of his chest, Roy tried to move his body and his now almost flailing legs in order to attempt to steer himself in the correct direction. It seemed like forever when Roy felt himself almost go flying off the ice and he started to roll in the soft grass, once he stopped moving he laid there, eyes closed and books still clenched against him, but his attention was grabbed by the sound of light laughing from around him.

"4 minutes, 59 seconds," a voice from above said, "not too bad." when Roy looked up he saw the same man from the classroom and quickly pushed himself up into a sitting position. "I'd like to welcome you all to the first alchemy class that is part of the military training problem at the academy. Here you will all be taught the fundamentals of alchemy and you will each pick an area of emphasis; creation, destruction, evocation, and general transmutation. There will be several tests throughout this class, ending in a tournament that will determine who will go on to the final exam." the man explained. The students each watched the professor intently. Looking over the other students, Roy figured he would have a lot of competition, but a part of him was sure he would die if every day started out the way this one did.

Maes yawned and pushed his glasses up a bit, he thought he should have been thrilled to be in a tacticians class, but since this was the 3rd time he'd take one, things were starting to wear on him a little.

"Something wrong Hughes?" his professor asked and Maes sat up straight in his seat.

"No sir, nothing at the moment." Maes said in his usual calm voice.

"Wonderful, then perhaps you can enlighten the rest of the class as to how you handle a situation on a train in which you and 2 other officers are against a band of gang members who have taken the train hostage." he teacher said. Maes, caught slightly off guard crossed his arms in front of his chest and began to work the situation through his head.

"excuse me sir, if I may ask, what is the motivation for both the officers and the gang member to be on the train in the first place? Is it something on the train that they're mutually wanting for themselves, is it someone on board, or the destination itself?" Maes asked breaking away from his thought process. The professor almost looked stunned at the sudden question and began to flip through the book. Watching that, Maes smirked and stretched his arms behind his head; sometimes it was nice knowing you only had a couple years left.

"Fire!" a man in a black uniform yelled, he looked as if he was glaring forward, and he also had on a pair of covers on his ears and the reason became apparent as a series of loud pops willing the air. "Fire!" he yelled again after about 2 second of letting the air echo of the gunfire. The firearms class was outside in the range today and the sunny weather made the targets difficult to aim at seeing as it was relatively early in the morning, and they were in the east side of the range. After a few more shots were figured, the officer removed his ear guards and looked to the students, "Hold you fire!" he shouted and all at once the line of students raised their gun to the sky, then sat on and looked forward at attention.

He walked past each target and commented on each students' marksmanship. The officer then stopped at one target and just starred at it; at first he thought the student had only made one shot, in the dead center of the target, but looking at it closer he could tell that the hole was actually wider than a single bullet. Looking at the line of students, he pointed to the one who had shot at the target.

"State your name." he said, his booking voice seemed to echo through the shooting range. Across the way, a student stood up, a few people around them broke attention to watch, some almost seemed to gasp.

"Hawkeye, Elizabeth Hawkeye." she said.

"Hawkeye...? This must be the General's daughter..." he mumbled, "Very Good!" he called to her, "Be seated." and at that, she sat back down, going back to attention and ignoring the other students.

John and Hymans sat next to each other and sighed, they were in a basic military education studied class. They were bored, but this class was a requirement before moving up into a general tactics glass. Their instructor was a woman with short black hair, and was wearing the usual blue officer's uniform.

"Havok, Breda," she said, and both of them looked to one another and sat up quickly, "You two should be sure to get enough sleep at night." she said, a few other student started to snicker off to the side.

"Oh no ma'am, you've got it all wrong." Hymans said grinning, the professor only looked at them skeptically.

"We're just so tire because of how incredibly fast this class moves." John said also grinning at her.

"Well those must have been an exhilarating 5 minutes, how about you tell the class about what was so exciting." the teacher said giving them a knowing smirk. John and Hymans looked at each other and felt very embarrassed when they realized that every eye in the classroom as suddenly on them.

"Being that it is the first day, you all did remarkable well," Roy's instructor said standing with his hands behind his back, "And before we all become too attached, I'd like to inform you that starting tomorrow you will have a better, more qualified instructor." hearing that, a couple stupid gasped while others started to mumble to one another.

"I'm so excited." a voice from behind Roy said and when he turned around he saw Alex sitting there, a small sparkle seemed to float to the side of the boy's face.

"Why?" Roy asked, then turned back to the teacher.

"As of tomorrow, your instructor will be General Major Richard Matthew Armstrong." the man said, and at that Roy spun around to look back at Alex.

"Finally a member of the Armstrong family has made it to teaching the art of alchemy to others." Alex said, and at that the floating sparkles seemed to explode in number. Roy wanted to run away and he gave a very worried look towards his friend.

"This should be interesting..." Roy mumbled, turning back around and lowering his head. He was starting to wonder just how long he was going to be able to take it in the class, and he was also hoping he'd be graded fairly, he knew he'd never take a class in which any member of his family was teaching.


	6. Part 2 ch 2

Child's Play

-Part 2, Chapter 2-

Roy sat at the lunch table and lightly hit his head against the smooth surface while he sat waiting for the others. It wasn't enough to hurt, but it was a way to vent some frustration.

"Roy?" he heard John ask, he then stopped the pounding, kept his head against the table and turned to see John, Maes, and Riza looking at him with odd looks.

"What is it?" Riza asked moving to sit across from him, John and Maes moved to either side of him and sat down.

"His father is my alchemy instructor." Roy said sitting up, but keeping his head lowered.

"Who's father?" Riza asked poking her food a little, mostly to see exactly what it was.

"Alex's. He's the State Alchemist that's going to be teaching my class. Alex is odd enough, what is his dad going to be like?" Roy explained, somehow managing to lower his head even more. John looked over and pat him on the back trying to make him feel better.

"No way!" Maes suddenly said drawing the attention of all three of them, "He's one of the first State Alchemists! He helped develop the actual test to see who is qualified to even become a State Alchemist.!" he explained.

"Really!" John said talking over Roy who had suddenly found himself very worried.

"That's amazing!" Riza said almost dropping her fork. "How did he do it?"

"Well, he had to work with a couple other people in order to get the clearance first, but the Fuehrer seemed to like the idea. But his tests are some of the toughest, most difficult in the whole academy; even before the alchemy class was made. Even wonder why Alex has always been able to carry and lift more than any human should? He's been training even since he was a little kid. Man...You have some stiff competition Roy." Meas explained, then placed a comforting hand on Roy's shoulder. Roy only got an even more worried look on his face, then went back to hitting his head against the table.

"I'm sure it'll be all right Roy. You're a skilled alchemist, even if you are younger than Alex. I'm sure you'll do just fine." Riza said lowering her head so that she could see Roy's face clearly when he lifted up his head, and tried to give him a comforting smile. He stayed like that for a moment, then sat up and the 4 of them went back to eating, eventually Hymans and Cain joined then group, Cain had a moderate stack of books and was reading one while eating. They all sat in silence for a moment until a series of rings filled the cafeteria and many students went quiet.

"Will Elizabeth Hawkeye please come to the Head Master's office, Elizabeth Hawkeye." a loud voice called throughout the building. The boys looked to her with shocked and confused faces and Riza felt herself turn red from embarrassment.

"What did I do?" she asked aloud while she quickly gathered her things and rushed out of the building. Once she left the boys all looked to one another with curious looks and Roy just poked at his food.

"Wonder what it's all about." Cain said looking away from his book, John and Hymans nodded in agreement.

"I'm sure she's all right, Riza's a good kid and doesn't ever seem to get into trouble." Maes said reassuringly

"I have a bad feeling about it..." Roy said starring down at his tray of food.

The walk home as quiet as Riza walked between Maes and Roy as she usually did, only looking forward as they went. Once they got to Maes' house they all walked up to the door to greet his mother as she welcomed her son home.

"Good afternoon Roy, Elizabeth." she said nodding to the two of them.

"Hello." Riza said nodding back.

"Good Afternoon Ms. Hughes." Roy said, he had gotten over his shyness towards her around the time Riza moved to the city, for some reason being around a girl everyday had snapped him out of his childish acts.

"Maes, I wanted to tell you something, and I figured I'd let your friends hear too." Mr. Hughes said, Maes looked at her and listened, "Your father and I have decided to start teaching you have to drive." she said smiling to her son.

"Really!" Maes said, his eyes seemed to light up and he wrapped his arms around his mother's shoulders, "Thanks you, thank you, thank you!"

"That's awesome Maes." Roy said patting him on the shoulder.

"Congratulations." Riza said smiling from her place on the step, "I guess soon you won't have to walk anymore." she said, and with that Roy turned and looked at her, not really expecting her to every say something like that.

"Nah," Maes said waving a hand in dismissal, "I like you both too much to just stop walking with you. It's kinda like a tradition." he explained, and Roy nodded in agreement. "Anyways, I'll see you guys tomorrow all right?" and with that Roy and Riza turned and started down their street.

They were both quiet as they walked, and Roy eventually looked to watch Riza; she was looking straight a head, as if walking at attention, and after a few moments, Roy looked forward as well.

"So what did the headmaster have to say?" He asked, and because he had looked away from her, he didn't see her suddenly tense up, didn't see her bite her lip and manage to hold something back before putting her serious look back on.

"He wanted to talk to me about my score in Firearms. It was very impressed with my target practice." She said turning to look at him, smiling as if to say that nothing was wrong and that nothing bad had come out of the meeting.

"That must have been some score. Good job." Roy said looking back at her.

"Thanks."

"Mustang!" a tall man with blond hair wearing a blue military uniform called out, and at that Roy sprang forward, moving around several targets that were placed on the field, and eventually spotting an open area. As he rounded a turn he pulled out his white chalk and skidded along the ground, spinning enough to make a closed circle. Once he came to a stop he drew out the inner lines of his recently altered array, adding a flame along the top line. After it was finished he placed his hands inside and each line shined a bit the shot into the air, the joined to form a ball of fire that shot out into several rays, each one engulfing one of the many targets.

Once a whistle was blown, Roy moved his hands away from the circle and stood at attention. The tall man made his way down the center of the targets, assessing each one as he went by. This was the 5th week of class, and already a few students had either dropped out or had been asked to leave. Regardless of how difficult a task was though, Roy wasn't going to drop out, he had to make it up to State Alchemist, he had to.

"Very good Mustang." the man said once he was standing directly in front of Roy, "Your technique has greatly improved since the beginning of class. Your style is very original, and I think will do this military well." he explained, then turned and went back towards the other line of students. Roy waited a moment, then moved to the side as new targets came up from the ground.

"Thank goodness..." Roy said to himself as he stood with the group that had already gone.

"Armstrong!" the man called and with that Alex moved to check the positions of the targets, then ran down the center of them, stopping quickly and dropping to his knees, also pulling out a piece of chalk and drawing out his array. When he placed his hands on the circle, it also glowed blue, but lightning seemed to course though the ground and lift up rocks until they were hurled towards the targets. It continued until each target was destroyed and the whistle again was blown. "Good job my boy! You truly know how to make alchemy into a work of art. You'll make the Armstrong name proud yet." the man said, Roy become frightened as it looked almost like the instructor was crying, but small sparkles were almost floating around him.

"Do you mean it father?" Alex said, and when Roy turned to look at his friend, he got the same sense of fear because of how much alike the two of them looked.

"...I hate this class sometimes..." Roy said feeling his left eyebrow twitch a little.

Riza took a few shots at a target in the indoor shooting range and slowly lowered her gun, simply starring at it. Again, her shots were perfect, in the dead center where the paper's heart would be.

"I don't want it to be perfect..." she mumbled to herself, then raised them gun up again, then took a couple more shots. It was almost as if something inside of her wouldn't let her miss the shot and she let an entire round go into the target's head.

"You are your father's daughter." a voice came from her right and she saw her instructor standing there. When she saw it was him she lowered the gun and watched him approach her. "I think you'll be perfect for that program. I'm glad I recommended you for it, you've shown nothing but progress since the first day, I almost feel bad for the other students, it's very difficult for them to keep up." he explained looking over at her target.

"I'm sorry..." she said following his gaze to the piece of paper that was hanging up.

"Don't be, you have great potential." he said patted her once on the shoulder then turned to leave. Riza watched him go and waited until she was certain the door was fully shut before reloading the gun, turning back to the target, and raising it up again.

"I don't want to be perfect...!" she said slightly louder this time, and she could feel a slight stinging in her eyes as she let off another round into the target. She felt her knees start to buckle a little when again she saw that she hadn't missed one shot, "Damnit..." she said tightly closing her eyes and slamming a fist into the counter in front of her. "I don't want to be perfect..."


End file.
